Giant Flag

March 20, 2007 11:27 AM

A demo from about six years ago. In Canada, the norm is that we don't tend toward the big rah-rah kind of Patriotism that our neighbours to the south are prone to. Ours is a polite, reserved, (Canadian), skeptical patriotism. There's an F-word in this one, if that sort of thing worries you.

Driving home to Toronto from Montreal, there's a truck stop on the 401 around Kingston, about half of the way home.
There's a HUGE flag on a pole in front of the gas station and there always seems to be a big semi parked under it, which you can use to gauge how enormous the flag is...you can imagine draping the flag over the truck, completely covering it.
While I'm not a blindly jingo-istic person by nature, the sight of the flag always gives me a good feeling and makes me happy that I live where I live.
In my head I always heard some kind of big Cuban band or something for this song. In reality I didn't even have drums yet and had to embrace the cheese of the "Bossanova" setting on my cheap keyboard and my ring on a beer bottle.
Sung while suffering a horrible cold.posted by chococat at 11:29 AM on
March 20, 2007

So, chococat, do you take requests? 'cause I'm thinking of starting to collect signatures to get you to post "You Dance with Old Ladies."

C'mon, it can't be that bad. You gotta realize that with that title it's hard to resist the curiosity, so...will you post it?posted by micayetoca at 12:36 PM on
March 20, 2007

I just love the guitar sound on this, and the vocal treatment is great too. Having a cold can be cool sometimes, I've got a couple of demos where my voice is sooo different due to a cold. Sometimes I wish I could sound like that all the time. You did a good job getting that cuban or latin rhythmic feel. Really great stuff!posted by edlundart at 3:24 PM on
March 20, 2007

I loved the feel of it too. And with you fronting it, that cheezy "bossanova" doesn't sound so cheezy. I also love how you regard the subject with some meloncholy as if it's not there anymore.

Since you brought it up, as one of your neighbors to the south, I really dislike all of the quasi-nationalist flag-waving that goes on down here. If the citizens were actually accepting of each other, which would be something to brag about, I might be more into it. Sorry, minor rant there.

micayetoca, you'd be really underwhelmed with the Old Ladies song. It's not that it's so awful, it just has seriously dumb deadline-lyrics. You can hear it in a week or so at the RPM jukebox thingy.

edlundart, singing with a cold can be good, but I never seem to get that cool raspy smoke-to-much quality; to me it just sounds like mucous.

snsranch, you sort of hit the nail on the head. Up here it's not bred into us, I guess, it's not a love-it-or-leave-it kind of thing...we don't have pep rallies and stuff like that. I'm not knocking that, just saying that it's a different vibe, completely. Which makes it kind of poignant when you actually have a patriotic feeling...it's not just what you're supposed to feel.
And that's my minor rant answer to your minor rant.posted by chococat at 8:05 PM on
March 20, 2007

I got inspired by this whole cold discussion and recorded a vocal for a recently written song tonight, using the last remnants of my own cold as fuel for a sliiightly raspier performance than I'd otherwise get. I'll post the song eventually, but there's quite a lot more work to do on it.posted by edlundart at 10:38 PM on
March 20, 2007

I'd listen to you sing the phonebook to hear your string work.

Thank god I don't have to. This is a really good song.posted by Ynoxas at 8:17 PM on
March 27, 2007

We drove to Ottawa for the Easter long weekend and ended up stopping at that Husky station in both directions (the last time I stopped there was at least 15 years ago) and I got this song in my head. AFAICT, the giant flag is a feature of any Husky station/truckstop.

Anyway, I'm enjoying the song.posted by winston at 10:48 AM on
April 21, 2007

Stellar - this is exactly my sort of thing! Mutations-era Beck meets Sparklehorse.posted by chuckdarwin at 4:03 AM on
April 26, 2007

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